Its official Warhammer 40k 10th Edition is real and releasing most likely in June; here’s everything we know about the new rules so far!
Games Workshop has officially confirmed the new 10th edition of Warhammer 40k, and tons of rule changes that they say are to simplify the game.
Alongside the launch, new Terminators and Termagants models will make up part of the new Warhammer 40k 10th Edition Starter Set!
Click the links below for the latest on 10th Edition Warhammer 40k and the full articles!
- Warhammer 40k New 10th Edition Release Guide: LATEST
- New 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Starter Set
- What Will Happen To Codex Books in 10th Edition
- How to Build Army Lists in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k
Here are all the latest rules previews, followed by all the rumors leading up to the official announcement of Warhammer 40k 10th Edition at Adepticon 2023.
10th Edition 40k Terrain Rules are Looking More Streamlined: (April 20th, 2023)
The rules come from Warhammer Community.
Terrain provides the Benefit of Cover rule to those units that can take advantage of it. As in previous editions, this adds 1 to save rolls against ranged attacks, but this time there’s an important caveat.
Having the Benefit of Cover will not improve saves of a 3+ or better against weapons with an Armour Penetration characteristic of 0. This means a unit will never have its save improved to 2+ by terrain.
This is pretty similar, but it’s interesting that if something has 0 AP, you won’t get better than a 3+ save; however, if something has -1 AP, then this will cancel out.
Now, deciding whether or not a unit has the Benefit of Cover is as simple as knowing which category their cover falls into – craters, barricades, debris, hills, woods, or ruins.
This should make things easier, as they will have visibility, engagement range, and cover rules on their rules card.
New Types of Warhammer 40k Terrain
This category includes other small patches of terrain such as rubble. It’s the most simple type and functions like the area terrain of previous editions, granting cover to any INFANTRY model standing wholly inside them. Even if the models are fully visible to the attacker targeting them, they get the cover.
Nothing too crazy, as this shouldn’t obstruct vision, but in theory your models are diving down to get some extra cover.
All sorts of terrain are classed as Barricades, from promethium pipelines to ramshackle defence lines, and any model within 3” can claim cover so long as the object partially obscures them from at least one of their attackers. As the thickness of a barricade can often make it difficult to get within 1” of an enemy unit when charging from the opposite side, this terrain type also modifies the Engagement Range rules to include models within 2”, providing they’re attacking a unit on the other side of the barricade.
Well, seeing if something is partially obstructed shouldn’t be too hard, but you will have to do some Line of Sight checks to see if you’re actually obscured sometimes. Then, for combat, you can fight if your models are within 2″ and on the opposite side, so it shouldn’t be too confusing at all now.
This terrain includes any bits and pieces that a unit can’t end their move on, such as barrels, statues, and piles of discarded Mek Workshop parts. These confer cover when they partially block a model from the attacking unit, regardless of range or size.
Again, if you are obscured at all, you get cover.
The Hills terrain type also encompasses solid buildings that units can stand on, like the Battlezone: Fronteris Landing Pad or Munitorum Armoured Containers. Both models and other terrain features can sit on top of hills provided they don’t overhang the edge and, like debris, the hill confers cover to anything it partially obscures. This often results in some dicey close-range firefights, as the edge of the hill itself gets in the way of units shooting up and down at each other.
It’s hard to be super obscured by the hill, but we guess if you’re close, it will come into play.
Woods and forests are a little more involved than the rest. Any model fully inside the wood, or viewed through an area of woodland terrain by a unit that is also not inside it, is never considered to be fully visible and receives the Benefit of Cover.
So, putting woods in the middle of a battlefield could effectively give tons of units cover. Because even if you look through the woods, you get cover. Again, you’ll have to do some LoS determinations, and having a defined outline of the trees will make this much easier.
Also note the two new keywords Towering, and Aircraft.
These wrecked and damaged structures completely block visibility of all models through their footprint, regardless of how much you can see through their fancy gothic windows. Otherwise, models outside can shoot in, and models inside can shoot out.
Since particularly tall ruins can give attackers an advantageous position, they also come with the Plunging Fire rule, which improves the Armour Penetration characteristic of a ranged attack by 1 when the attacking model is more than 6” above ground level and shooting at a target on the ground – making it a great way to get around other units’ cover.
It makes sense some terrain pieces block all vision if a model is not inside of it. However, if you’re in the ruins, you can still be shot and shoot out yourself. Either way, your models get the cover no matter what. Plunging Fire is interesting and will make very tall terrain pieces more valuable to secure.
Vehicles & Primaris Get Even Better as GW Drops 10th Edition 40k Transport Rules: (April 19th, 2023)
The rules come from Warhammer Community.
Now any embarked unit is free to hop out once a transport has moved – provided the vehicle didn’t Advance or Fall Back. They can also shoot, but can’t make a charge, unless they disembark before the vehicle moves.
This is a major improvement for mechanised armies that love to leap from their vehicles and blaze away at close range, like the T’au, Astra Militarum, Aeldari, and power armour-clad warriors of all varieties. You still can’t embark and disembark on the same turn, but you don’t need to keep your engine running for a turn before the doors open – which, coupled with their newfound durability, makes fielding transports more appealing than ever.
So, some changes in general, but some vehicles even have rules to allow units to disembark after advancing. You still have to jump out of the vehicle before it moves to charge (other than individual tanks), which is probably for the best, but this is just the start of the changes.
In the past, certain open-topped vehicles allowed the troops inside to fire out, and this has now been consolidated into a universal Firing Deck X rule. Just choose one weapon each from a given number of embarked models – such as a plasma gun and meltagun from some Cadian Shock Troops riding in a Chimera with Firing Deck 2 – and the transport will count as if it’s equipped with them for their own shooting attacks.
We saw this with the Rhino, and it has Firing Deck 2 as well. So maybe most of the non-open-topped vehicles will have Firing Deck 2. Looks like vehicles now are the ones doing the shooting, and there are some potential combos to be had as well…
Previously, embarked troops couldn’t benefit from buffs, but now because the transport itself is making the attack, their weapons gain any boosts the vehicle does. For instance, an Ork Mek can use his Mekaniak ability to act as a powerful force multiplier for the Battlewagon’s monstrous Firing Deck 22.
First, firing Deck 22 seems insane, and hopefully, all open-topped vehicles have Firing Deck equal to transport capacity. Not only will the Mek restore wounds, but he will also make them better at shooting, so we’ll see if this is fairly generic along all mechanic-type characters.
New Vehicle Keywords
Some vehicles, however, circumvent the rules entirely with special abilities, such as fast movers like the Impulsor and the Astra Militarum Taurox who can disembark troops even after advancing.
The Land Raider reclaims its Assault Ramp – meaning passengers can declare a charge on the same turn they disembark. If this sounds like a return to the glory days of delivering Terminators hot and fresh into headlong assaults, you’d be right, but it’s not the only Space Marine transport with newfound flexibility.
This means you can really sprint your units to the front to take objectives, and the units inside also only count as having made a normal move, so they can shoot without much penalty. This seems to be a pretty big change overall. Then, maybe most importantly, it looks like you can disembark from a Land Raider after it has moved and still charge!
Maybe we’ll actually see the big tank make a return with this rule!
Many other transports get a new lease on life with characterful rules of their own. The Chimera is often used as a command post by Astra Militarum officers, so now they can bark orders from (relative) safety with the Mobile Command Vehicle rule.
This is huge, as they can sit in the tank and keep issuing orders. We’ll have to see how many vehicles get a similar rule, but with auras going away (mostly), it might not be as helpful for other factions.
The Falcon grav tank, meanwhile, lends supporting fire to its disembarked passengers by picking out priority targets with its own guns. The freshly deployed Aeldari then get to reroll wound rolls against that same unit, giving the Craftworlds a fast one-two punch of overwhelming firepower or lethal bladework that really fits purpose as the premier aspect -warrior delivery system.
This is actually a huge buff, as re-rolling your wounds is no joke. You can always just split fire with something small, and as long as you hit once, you’re getting the buff and sending the bigger guns into something else.
10th Edition 40k Transport Rules: Primaris & Tank Keywords
Minus a couple of exceptions,* Space Marine transports no longer care whether a Primaris unit is riding in the back or not.
* The Rhino, Razorback, and Impulsor are still specialised for certain squad types, and many larger models like Terminators and Gravis-armoured Space Marines still have their own restrictions.
So, it looks like as long as the vehicle doesn’t have a specification about what units can be inside, anything can. Meaning Firstborn and Primaris is not going to have as strict of rules for what they can ride in.
However, GW even dropped a hint for drop pods as it looks like they can be used by Primaris now! ! It’s also interesting they left the transport capacity off the Rhino datasheet, but we assume from this that most will stay similar.
Well, we might be seeing a lot of classic transports! With better Land Raider rules and (possibly) Primaris in drop pods, things might get spicey out there!
Psychic & Morale Rules For Warhammer 40k 1oth Edition: (April 18th, 2023)
The turn structure is still the same: one player still takes the first turn, to manoeuvre and fight with all the forces at their disposal, and then the second player does the same. This is still called the Battle Round, but seven phases have now become five – and both players will now contest each one to the fullest.
Here’s the headline: the phase structure is broadly the same. You perform admin for the turn ahead in the Command phase. Then you manoeuvre in the Movement phase, take aim in the Shooting phase, charge into melee in the Charge phase, and get biffing in the Fight phase.
So what’s changed? The Psychic phase and the Morale Phase are now no more – but this doesn’t mean that psychic powers and morale are gone. The effects are still very much present, but they’ve been smartly compressed into the other phases. Let’s break it down.
This is something that has gotten a lot of players heated, especially those who play Thousand Sons and the like. It will take some getting used to, but those units should all have their datasheets really buffed up.
Either way, this is what’s happening, so we’ll have to see how the army shapes up before making too many assumptions. Morale will all be done in the Command Phase now too, so just remember to do battleshock tests at the start of your turn and not the end (but we’ll look at it more below).
The Psychic Phase
For some players – the likes of the Thousand Sons, Grey Knights, and Aeldari – the old-style Psychic phase was a technicolour carnival of empyrean delights. For others – especially the T’au Empire and Necrons – it was often 10 minutes spent watching your opponent make a bunch of mysterious 2D6 rolls and remove models accordingly.
This was often un-fun and awkward to play around, so now psychic powers are used throughout the other phases, instead. Peering into the future for tactical insights? That’s an ability for the Command phase. Paralysing foes with hypnosis? You’ll do that in the Fight phase. Tossing around eldritch lightning? That’s a ranged attack, used in the Shooting phase alongside any regular guns you may be carrying.
It’s nice to see so many of the staples still being mentioned, and everything won’t just be an arcane bolt power in your shooting phase. This should make playing against certain armies less boring as instead of a 10-20 minute phase, it will be sprinkled throughout. However, if you’re playing one of those armies, just be sure to pay attention and get your powers in during the right phases and not pass it by and not be able to use them.
Luckily, we also have some datasheets to see how they work.
Terminator Librarian Datasheet
The new Terminator Librarian, for instance, unleashes his Smite in the Shooting phase. Each time he does so, you can choose to manifest either a controlled mental burst, or a recklessly powerful psychic onslaught that may backfire thanks to the Hazardous weapon ability.
Psykers are more than just brain-based artillery, however – he also boosts any Terminator Squad he’s leading, twisting the Veil of Time to grant their attacks the Sustained Hits ability. Each Space Marine Librarian brings their own flavour of psychic chicanery to battle.
First, they haven’t told us what hazardous means (but it would make sense every roll of a 1 is a Mortal against the bearer), but smite can do some serious damage with D6 shots at S6. -2AP, and D3 Damage.
Then, Devastating Wounds will get you mortals on 6’s to wound, so if you have this on a bunch of units, it could be pretty devastating. After that, he gives sustained hits (hit rolls of 6’s do additional hits) and keeps your unit safe from other psychic attacks. So, he only has two powers, in essence, one to help units hit better (innately) and a powerful shooting attack.
Ork Weirdboy Datasheet
The Ork Weirdboy, on the other hand, can’t be bothered with anything so quotidian as a gun, but his ‘Eadbanger shooting attack grows in power and volatility according to how many Boyz he has in his entourage.
His Da Jump power fires at the end of the Movement Phase, allowing you to teleport his ladz somewhere more deadly – assuming his brain doesn’t explode from the stress…
There are a few things here of note. First, he keeps T5 and hits on a 4+ (which might just be because it’s a psychic attack, not necessarily all Orks will have 4+ BS). Next up, his psychic attack has precision (we would guess you can target characters) and can get add on a ton of damage and Strength, which is super thematic.
If you stick this in a big unit, the Weirdboy could be one-shotting characters all over the place, which is just cool. However, Da Jump is what most Ork players may have been really worried about. The new ability goes off on a 2+, and the whole unit jumps. However, you can only do this on the Weirdboy’s unit, meaning you need to put him in a unit you want to jump!
10th Edition 40k Morale Phase
Morale is even simpler – that all gets sorted in your Command Phase, when you take Battle-shock tests for any units that have taken enough losses.
Battle-shock tests are super simple. Roll a 2D6 for every unit that’s Below Half-strength – that means they’re a squad with less than half of their starting models, or a single model with less than half of their starting Wounds. You’ll need to roll equal to or above your new Leadership characteristic – if you fail, that unit suffers some nasty penalties until your next turn.
This means models don’t just run away, but they are not nearly as effective and cannot control objectives, etc. Maybe the most interesting thing about all of this is that even single models can fail LD tests.
So if you have a big vehicle or monster, it can actually fail a test. Whereas before, only squads could really run away; this makes single big models a little worse intrinsically; just interesting to look at.
Weapon Rules for 10th Edition Warhammer 40k: (April 14th 2023)
The new rules come from Warhammer Community.
Up until now, your guns were divided into several categories: Heavy, Rapid Fire, Assault, and so on. In the new edition, these classifications become weapon abilities.
This change allows weapons to behave in more varied ways than before, without increasing the number of rules you need to learn. A bolt rifle has both the Assault and Heavy abilities, for instance – meaning it can be fired on the move or braced for extra accuracy, as needed.
This flexibility is perfect for representing auto and stalker bolt rifles, which are now streamlined into the same weapon profile. All Intercessors just have bolt rifles, which you can build with whatever scopes or magazines you please.
This is interesting in two ways; first, a heavy weapon gets +1 to hit when stationary and not -1 to hit when moving. Then, there is no minus for shooting assault weapons, and all Intercessors have bolt rifles, no matter how it’s modeled.
The core rules include a variety of other weapon abilities, which tie together similar effects found across factions. Weapons that shredded through armour on lucky rolls can now share the Devastating Wounds ability instead. This allows them to dish out mortal wounds on a Critical Wound – that’s an unmodified Wound roll of 6.
Almost all weapons have had their core statistics changed to help pull their weight in this new, more durable edition – especially those designed to tackle vehicles. You’ll generally find that most guns have not increased in strength, and have often lost a pip of AP.
It seems a little strange an Assault Cannon has no AP, but the bolt rifle does. However, with Devastating Wounds, you can just roll a six to wound and inflict a mortal (or whatever the damage is). Up to this point, there have been some really strong weapons, but overall, they are promising weaker weapons.
The melta rifle, for example, gains a bump in Strength and the Melta rule to boost its Damage at short range, while the Hammerhead’s infamous railgun soars to Strength 20.
This is a cool way for them to make bigger weapons stronger at close range, and something like the rifle only goes up by two Strength. Still, it has -4 AP and D6 Damage, so plenty good at killing tanks.
The shuriken cannon picks up Sustained Hits, common among weapons that throw massive amounts of firepower down range – and on swarming Tyranid Invasion Fleets. This one simply adds the listed number of extra hits when a Critical Hit is scored – that’s an unmodified Hit roll of 6. Easy to remember.
This, again, gives some good flexibility and also the possibility for an insane amount of exploding 6’s. We’re not sure how high the number will go, but we might see something like Sustained Hits 3, and every six will score three extra hits!
Melee weapons can also have abilities, including a blast from the past – Twin-linked is back! This classic rule is now found on ranged and melee weapons alike, and confers a re-roll to wound. In recent editions, many weapons that used to be twin-linked were instead treated like two guns taped together, which had a serious impact on balance. This change makes them more reliable, rather than twice as killy.
This is an interesting change, and instead of more shots, you have a better chance to wound. So, while you still have the same chance to hit, you should be wounding a whole lot more.
Vehicle Rules For Warhammer 40k 10th Edition: (April 13th, 2023)
Warhammer Community previewed the new vehicle rules for 10th Edition Warhammer 40k, and things are looking quite different!
Almost every vehicle has received a bump in Toughness. So while Toughness 9 used to be the highest you’d ever see in a game, in the new edition you can find units like the Ork Stompa with toughness as high as 14!
All the weapons in the game have also been recalibrated to fit into this new scale, and we’ll be talking about those tomorrow.
This will make vehicles even more critical for armies, and without as many list restrictions, we’ll probably be seeing all kinds of tanks.
New 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Rhino Datasheet Rules
Coming out of the gate with a Toughness score to match the Titans of old, the reinforced Rhino actually sits towards the bottom end of the pool of hardy Space Marine vehicles. Its new Toughness of 9 leaves it significantly less vulnerable to most infantry-portable weapons, even meltagun blasts.
At the same time, the Rhino receives two core abilities common across many factions – Deadly Demise and Firing Deck. The first of these dictates how many mortal wounds are suffered by nearby units when a vehicle explodes, while the second shows how many embarked units can shoot from inside a transport. Both rules have previously existed in many different forms, and are now condensed into core abilities for clarity.
You’ll also notice that most Vehicles have an OC (Objective Control) of more than 1, meaning that ramming a depleted enemy infantry squad to muscle them off an objective, is an entirely legitimate tactic!
So first, this moves to Toughness 9 and OC 2. The bigger the tank, the bigger the OC score, so you can actually secure objectives with these. Then, they changed the rules for exploding to be more straightforward (we assume the D3 means D3 damage for Deadly Demise). The Firing Deck tells you how many models from inside can shoot.
In theory, if you have two powerful weapons inside, you can just go ahead and shoot those two plasmas every time! They also said tanks would degrade, but we’re not sure if it will be a single chart where every tank, vehicle, and monster just degrades the same or if they are just leaving that out for now.
Also, one thing to note, the Hunter-Killer moves to Strength 14, which is pretty wild, so maybe the lower lethality will just come in terms of things being tougher. Who knows? Lastly, the Rhino regenerates one wound per turn, which is always nice.
New Space Marine Vehicle Profiles
We’re still not recommending staying out in the open against concentrated railgun fire, but you should find your armoured behemoths make it through more firefights and can form a solid bastion in your army. To prove the point, here are a few more examples from the Space Marine roster.
They didn’t give all the rules, but just the profiles are looking great! The Repulsor comes in at the tankiest (pun intended) with T12, 16 Wounds, and an OC of 5! All the tanks will be way harder to bring down, so pretty interesting overall.
New Character Rules In Warhammer 10th Edition 40k: (April 11th, 2023)
From the sounds of it, gone are the days of almost all aura buffs (but a few remain). Now, your characters will have to join squads like in the old days to give them the buffs! This maybe means we’ll need to see more heroes running around in armies to get a ton of buffs to your units.
On top of that, characters seem to become part of the unit for the whole game, not just free roaming across units. So some profound changes are here for character rules in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k
The new changes to character rules in Warhammer 40k come from Warhammer Community.
The new edition of Warhammer 40,000 is bringing some pretty massive changes to the rules. One of the most eye-catching is the way that CHARACTERS now interact with their subordinates. The powerful Aura bonuses that they used to impart on all nearby troops are gone – in almost all cases. These effects were powerful, but the potential to stack them up made balancing the game tricky.
So now, rather than handing out re-rolls to anyone in earshot, your heroes now join a single squad and act as one cohesive unit. It’s an elegant system that helps keep over-buffed super-units at bay.
This is a huge change and something that is probably moving in the right direction. So much of 9th Edition has become a lot about getting your auras stacked for your units and buffing them up. We see how this makes the game hard to balance.
Now, you must join a single squad to buff them up.
Take this Primaris Lieutenant. The first thing to notice is the Leader ability, which unlocks the ability to join a squad. This is done before deployment, at the same time as transports are allocated and units are placed in Reserve – the Leader becomes a permanent member of that unit for the whole battle.
Each Leader has a short selection of units that they can join, all of them listed on their datasheet. A Primaris Lieutenant can shack up with Intercessors or Bladeguard Veterans but leaves Gravis-armoured Aggressors and Heavy Intercessors to his more appropriately equipped colleagues.
This means you join a squad and stay with that squad. So, you might need more characters to buff up more squads now, but they give some pretty exciting buffs compared to just re-rolling something.
Just by putting a Lieutenant in the squad, for example, you get the lethal ability (automatically wound on a hit roll of a 6) and can shoot and charge even when you fall back.
His Tactical Precision ability grants his subordinates Lethal Hits, a core ability that makes Critical Hits – the new term for an unmodified 6 on a Hit roll – automatically wound their target.
Most of the time, only one Leader can join each unit – but as you can see, the Lieutenant is an exception, and can join the same squad as a superior Captain. Plenty of factions have similar low-ranked support Leaders, from Biophagus surgeons to Warlock battle-psykers.
The old Look Out, Sir! rule has also been devolved into this new system. Your Leader is kept safe by their Bodyguards, and can usually* be targeted only when everyone else in the squad has breathed their last.
It’s interesting that you can double-buff a unit with two characters and make them hit harder. However, one of the biggest changes is the Look Out, Sir! rule.
This means you want to put your heroes in sizable squads, as once everything dies in the unit, they are left alone and can be shot at.
Independent Characters
Not all characters possess the Leader ability, however. Independent sorts may instead have the Lone Operative ability, which means that they can’t be targeted by ranged attacks unless the attacker is within 12″. This potent defensive trait is common among the stealthier specialists of the 41st Millennium, such as Vindicare Assassins or Commander Shadowsun.
Some characters only gain the Lone Operative ability when taking shelter near an appropriate unit – such as when Iron Father Feirros is working on an allied VEHICLE, or Lion El’Jonson is near a unit of ADEPTUS ASTARTES INFANTRY. Such heroes tend to benefit their comrades without Leading them, perhaps through Aura abilities that boost nearby allies.
It makes sense certain characters can’t join units, and the lookout rule is totally simplified; if you’re more than 12″ away, you can’t target them. Then, the previews mention some aura buffs are still around, but we assume it will only be for a couple of models and big baddies like the new Lion.
GW Reveals New 40k 10th Edition Faction Rules for Tyranids & Space Marines: (April 7th, 2023)
The rules come from Warhammer Community.
The Index Cards released at the dawn of the new edition will each come with one Detachment, representing a common fighting style for a particular faction, and more will emerge as new Codexes arrive and armies expand. There is one golden rule: every Detachment must fit onto a single double-page spread. This means you’ll never need to go leafing through an armful of rulebooks to find that key Stratagem – you’ll have your core rules, your datasheets, and two pages of unique rules, and you’re good to go!
With only two pages of unique rules (we assume this includes all Stratagems, Relics, and Traits), it should be pretty easy to keep track of everything. Also, let’s hope this means when they come out with codexes, they have more lore and some form of free rules.
On top of this, every faction gets an army ability regardless of which Detachment you’re using. This represents the totemic aspect of that faction in war – so the Orks get Waaagh!, Tyranids get Synapse, the Astra Militarum get Orders, and the Space Marines get Oath of Moment.
Those all make sense so far, and now it looks like you won’t have quite as many rules considering Nids get Synapse as their singular army rule (but then you get to pick detachment rules on top of that). Then, getting to re-roll hits and wounds against a unit for totally free is awesome.
Also, this will make Terminators hit on a 2+ for almost every weapon and get re-rolls, so they should never really miss or not wound the chosen target.
Warhammer 40k 10th Edition Detachments Rules
The Tyranids begin their adventures in the new edition as an Invasion Fleet, focused on swift evolution and overwhelming offence. The Invasion Fleet’s Detachment rule is Hyper-adaptations, which provides three different abilities you can choose from each battle, depending on what you’re fighting.
Swarming Instincts adds the Sustained Hits 1 ability to your attacks against INFANTRY and SWARMS, landing an extra blow whenever you score a Critical Hit – that’s the new term for rolling an unmodified 6 on your Hit roll. This will be your go-to adaptation to handle an enemy horde or a stoic wall of elite infantry.
It looks like each sub-faction will have three options, and you pick one before the game starts. For Nids, we also learn what Critical Hits are (6’s to hit, pretty obvious, but hey), and Sustained Hits give you exploding 6’s. However, we really don’t know exactly what the other two will give you quite yet.
Warhammer 40k 10th Edition Faction Rules: Stratagems and Enhancements
No Detachment will contain more than six Stratagems. Add that to a robust universal menu of 12 Core Stratagems, and there’s now simply less to keep track of. Armour of Contempt returns as a Stratagem for the Gladius Task Force, the first Space Marine Detachment.
Well, at most, you can have 18 Stratagems, which is still a decent amount, but considering most are generic, it should be pretty straightforward. This is like a NERFed form of AoC as it only affects one unit but could still be super useful for only 1 CP.
Enhancements replace the old Relics and Warlord Traits, offering a unified list of unique upgrades for each Detachment. Unlike Stratagems, there are no Core Enhancements – each one is tied to a specific Detachment for a specific faction, tailored to your roster and abilities. These include refined personal wargear like Artificer Armour, or tactical talents that allow a commander to enhance the unit they’re leading.
It looks like they are just combining Relics and Warlord Traits into one now, and it should make it easier to select stuff for your characters. This isn’t anything too crazy, but having a 5+ FNP and a 2+ Save is always lovely!
New 10th Edition 40k Terminators Rules Datasheet: (April 4th, 2023)
Games Workshop revealed the following new 10th edition Warhammer 40k rules for the new Space Marines Terminators.
One of the core design goals of the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 is to make notably tough units tougher, and allow them to withstand punishment befitting their reputation. Terminators, for instance, retain their iconic 2+ Save but get an increased Toughness of 5 and a 4+ Invulnerable Save right out of the gate, boosting their resistance to massed low-strength weapons and armour-piercing cannons alike.
Their Leadership score of 6+ is also excellent in the new edition – on par with most Characters – though with an Objective Control score of just 1, they’ll need some help from Intercessors to hold down the fort.
Well, they are going to be super tough with three Wounds, five Toughness, a 2+ save (which will be better as there is less AP), and a 4+ invulnerable save. Then, they have some great weapons, but you’ll notice the AP is missing from the Assualt Cannon, but the Krak Missile is actually improved on Strength.
Power Fists and Power Weapons also have reduced AP. One last big thing, they have a lesser OC score than Intercessors, which means they will be making troops important.
Storm bolters and power fists go together like cheese and wine. The former has a new-look Rapid Fire weapon ability that gives you extra shots within half range – so with Rapid Fire 2 on top of the weapons base Attacks value of 2, they can still fire four times within 12”.
Nothing too crazy, but this does give the option for Rapid Fire weapons to get a 3x or 4x multiplier and get a ton of shots!
New 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Abilities
Power fists are a little more spicy. They’re less unwieldy now, hitting on 3+, while chainfists shred armour with the new Anti-Vehicle 3+ ability.
Anti abilities – covering many different keywords like Infantry, Monster, and Vehicle – produce a Critical Wound on any wound roll that matches or beats the specified score, regardless of the target’s Toughness. This makes for specialised weapons that excel in their field, but don’t stay equally deadly against other target types.
Anti is interesting, as you will wound all vehicles with the Chainfist on a 3+ no matter what! So, this could be really helpful for a bunch of different squads. Next up is another new weapon ability.
Several other Terminator weapons have their own abilities, like Devastating Wounds on the assault cannon, and we’ll be covering these at a later date.
Devastating Wounds might be something like saves can’t be taken on a wound roll of a six, or they just will get extra AP. We’ll have to see, but it sure sounds like rolling better to wound will either do more damage or AP.
Rapid Ingress Stratagem & Deep Striking
Almost every datasheet in the game has its own special ability – many of which used to be Stratagems. Teleport Homer makes use of the new Rapid Ingress core stratagem to Deep Strike in your opponent’s turn.
Fury of the First, meanwhile, makes Terminators especially effective at destroying the target of the Oath of Moment – the Space Marine faction ability. We’ll find out what this does tomorrow, when we take our first look at faction rules.
As you can see, the Stratagems look a lot different than before. They seem pretty easy to read, with everything in a few sentences. They mention Deep Strike is back, which is a little different, as you can place the token on the battlefield and teleport the Terminators there.
Then, we’ll learn more about the Oath of Moment, but both that and Fury of the First seems to suggest that will still be hit modifiers in the game, and the Terminators will be hitting on 2s throughout the game!
How Objective Control, Leadership & Datasheets Will Work: (April 3rd, 2023)
Here’s the new info straight from Warhammer Community.
Objective Control – or OC – is a measure of how well a unit can secure critical locations. It’s an elegant means of clarifying a previously complex aspect of the game. Now each model has an OC characteristic, and to determine who controls an objective, you simply count up the total OC of all models within range. This small but impactful change breathes new life into basic troops – taking and holding ground is a newfound specialty and a clear key to victory.
Warriors that were previously categorised as Troops will generally have a higher OC than elite units – whose job is not to hold ground, but to strike and move on. Vehicles and Monsters also earn a more substantial OC, so Knights and the like can muscle smaller units off objectives.
This makes sense considering a Knight can just bully foot troops off an objective. However, we’re happy to see them keep troops with a higher OC score than some of the more elite faction choices. With that said, though, vehicles having a higher OC score will be able to move up and claim objectives easier than before.
How Does Leadership LD Work in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k?
Leadership is much more impactful in the new edition. Your units’ morale is now gauged with a Battle-shock test. Many factors can force a unit to test for Battle-shock, including being below Half-strength during the Command Phase. Fail and they struggle to capture objectives, use Stratagems, or Fall Back from combat.
You’ll also notice that Leadership now counts upwards. Our Intercessor has LD 6+ – which is equivalent to his old value of 8.
It’s interesting that falling back from combat, and scoring objectives will now be harder if you fail an LD check. Now, you want to roll above your LD instead of below, and you’ll do it on two dice, bringing back an old school feel!
From this example, it would make sense for LD7 to now be a 7+, LD6 an 6+, and so on and so forth.
New Weapon Profiles in 10th Edition 40k
Everything you need to take a shot or a swing at your enemies is now contained in an individual weapon profile – everything from Attacks to Weapon Skill to Damage is all in one place. This means that weapons like power fists, which used to need text to explain that they made things harder to hit, now have their own hit roll statistic.
Moreover, weapon profiles are tied to individual units – so a chainsword in the hands of a Space Marine is deadlier and easier to hit with than one held by a snivelling cultist.
This lets them take the same weapon and totally change their profile, so they can all have the same name and different profiles. This also means you don’t have to look around for weapon rules and such (as they mentioned the -1 to hit), so it seems like it should make the game flow pretty easily.
The fundamental interactions haven’t changed – equal Strength and Toughness still means you wound on a roll of 4+, and so forth. It’s just that all of a weapon’s quirks are contained in its Core Abilities.
Many different effects are covered by Core Abilities, from classic weapon types like Assault and Rapid Fire to auto-hits from flame weapons. We’ll go into weapon rules more in an upcoming article.
They are really trying to tie things together with core rules, so we’ll have to see how it plays out.
How to Build Army Lists in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k: (March 30th, 2023)
Here’s how to make Warahmmer 40k Army lists straight from Warhammer Community.
For the new edition, the rules team have tried to incentivise the use of a wider range of units by ensuring that each one has a cool, unique ability to bring to the field. Troops are no longer a tax you must pay to unlock the units you actually want to take – but you’ll absolutely still be seeing plenty of classic front line squads showing up on the field.
There are now three main army sizes: Incursion (1,000 points), Strike Force (2,000 points), and Onslaught (3,000 points). 500-point games are still perfectly possible, of course, but the Warhammer 40,000 Core Rules are optimised for slightly larger forces than that.
Power Levels are a thing of the past – points are now the order of the day.
We’re not sure how many people ever used power levels anyways, but nice to see it not in the game anymore. Other than that, it’s pretty similar from here other than two things. Instead of picking sub-factions, you pick detachments that will have different rules for them (much like sub-factions), and promoting your Warlord is kind of like giving them traits, but slightly different now…
Picking Detachments
Here’s where the differences begin to show themselves. Instead of choosing a subfaction or constructing your own, you now choose a single set of Detachment rules for your whole army. These include special abilities, Enhancements, Stratagems, and unit restrictions.
For instance, you might be playing as the Gladius Task Force of the Adeptus Astartes. Your faction gives you the Oath of Moment army rule (more on this next week!) while your Detachment gives you access to six unique Stratagems – on top of the core group in the main rules – as well as four exclusive Enhancements for your Space Marine characters. It also bags you the Combat Doctrines ability, which allows you to pick from three powerful doctrines during your Command phase.
If you chose to fight with a different Detachment, you’d replace the Strategems, Enhancements and Combat Doctrines with those of the new Detachment.
Detachment choice will very rarely be tied to an army colour scheme. So while Ultramarines might be the theoretical and practical masters of the Gladius Task Force, other Chapters can use it too – and the same will be true of many other detachments as they are added into the game. This also means that you can try multiple Detachments with a single army. You are not going to be locked into a single Detachment just because you painted your army blue, or red, or yellow.
So, depending on your detachment, you will have a totally different set of rules to play with. They touched on this before and said all the different detachments would be at the start of the book, and most will fit on one or two pages.
While they showed this with Space Marines, basically every army has sub-factions, so we’ll have to see if they keep a bunch of them or cut them down to just a few per faction. Either way, without it being tied to a color scheme, you should be able to try out whichever ones you like the most.
Picking Units
Using the Faction keyword you picked earlier, you now select the units you want to include in your army, with the following stipulations:
- You must include at least one CHARACTER
- You can only include one of each named EPIC HERO
- You can only include up to three units of each datasheet
- However, you can include up to six units of each datasheet with the BATTLELINE or DEDICATED TRANSPORT keywords
- Each CHARACTER can only have one Enhancement, you can’t include more than three Enhancements in total, and these must all be different.
And that’s it!
So, this is quite the change; you are good to go if you don’t have more than three of one unit (six for transports or Battleline units). This will really allow players to take a bunch of units they want.
Did you want your army to be three units of 10 bikers, go for it! Other than that, all you need is one character. The other difference is now you enhance your Warlord, but we’ll talk about that below. Lastly, it looks like they are keeping the troops somewhat alive with Battleline units, but now with the OC score, you don’t really need them to take objectives as much.
How to Build Army Lists in Warhammer 40k 10th Edition: The Warlord
You now choose one CHARACTER as your leader. They gain the WARLORD keyword, and you’re ready to select your missions. There’s a real power in the simplicity of the new system. Now, no Detachment will ever need more than a couple of pages to cover all its unique rules and restrictions, meaning there will never again be any need to waste time flicking through codex pages to find the right rule.
They didn’t go too much into the enhancement part, but we assume it will be pretty similar to Warlord traits currently, but it feels like you’ll only be able to pick one regardless…
What Will Happen To Codex Books In 10th Edition Warhammer 40k: (March 28th, 2023)
The Design Studio has taken a long, hard look at the state of the game. The core rules that underpin Warhammer 40,000 are strong, but in their review, they found many opportunities for streamlining the system, fixing rules that didn’t quite sit right, and numerous other ‘quality-of-life’ changes.
As they said multiple times, the new edition aims to simplify and streamline a lot of the clutter surrounding rules. With this reveal, they reiterated that idea further.
Those sticky complexities have now been smoothed out, and without losing any of the game’s depth. These much-needed simplifications are substantial enough that, from a rules perspective at least, every ninth edition codex has been rendered obsolete. That’s not to say they’re useless – they’re still bursting with the lore, history, and short stories that define each faction, and until new codexes emerge over the course of the new edition, these books will still be the main repository of the knowledge you need.
While it sounds rough, “rendered obsolete,” it does make sense. The overhaul they are talking about seems to be all-encompassing, and trying to tie in or errata all the current rules just isn’t worth it and would be confusing for players anyways.
The associated packs of datacards are also obsolete. One of the main vectors for streamlining armies has been to heavily reduce the numbers of Stratagems available to each faction. Gone are the days of shuffling through 50 cards to find the right ability – each army now has a lean list of them included on the double-page spread that defines them.
With the band-aid ripped off, datacards containing the rules from the codexes will also be unusable.
You will nevertheless be able to play your chosen army as soon as the new edition lands. We are releasing revamped, restatted, and reconsidered datasheets for every single unit in the game – all free to download at launch and ready to go. You’ll also be able to buy inexpensive packs of these cards at launch.
However, to ease the pain a bit, all factions will be getting a sort of Index set of rules for free online on day 1!
Boarding Actions, on the other hand, are still going strong. The core rules in Arks of Omen: Abaddon were specifically written to work with the new edition, and the book will remain available for the foreseeable future. All you need to play this tight and tense format of Warhammer 40,000, is this book, the book that contains your own faction rules, and a set of terrain.
The last tidbit they gave us was regarding the Arks of Omen series, and thankfully these recent books and their rules were made to continue working into the 10th edition… Thank the Emperor for that, at least.
Retailer Q&A for 10th Edition Warhammer 40k (March 27th, 2023)
Games Workshop sent out a retailer Q&A over the weekend to retailers to update them on the edition change.
Why have you made a new edition?
We are always looking to make our games the best they can be.
A new edition allows us to make improvements right across the game that impacts every army. It also allows us to explore more of the rich setting of the universe of Warhammer 40,000 with a refocus on a new region of the galaxy.
Can customers still use their current armies to play?
Yes, current armies and miniatures will still be usable in the new edition of Warhammer 40,000.
What happens to codexes and expansions?
The rules in the current range of codexes are not compatible with the new edition, so they will be retired. Rules for every army and unit will be free at launch of the new edition.
The recent Arks of Omen books and the Boarding Patrol rules ARE supported in the new edition.
What new models are on the way?
The vast majority of the 40k range will stay the same. Space Marines and Tyranid fans can look forward to a swathe of new and updated units.
Your Account Manager will contact you at the appropriate time to discuss any changes to your ranges.
What happens to Kill Team?
Nothing. Kill Team is its own rules set, so it isn’t affected by changes to the main Warhammer 40,000 game.
Will the ‘core’ rules still be available for free?
Yes. The core rules for the game will be free.
At launch, datasheets and army rules for every unit in Warhammer 40,000 will also be free.
What languages will the new Warhammer 40,000 be launched in?
The new Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook will be available in full in English and French.
Nothing too crazy here or different from the other FAQ but the only mention of new models is for Nids and Space Marines. It does look like the Boarding Patrols and Arks of Omen will stay, though. Maybe the most significant thing is French, and English will be the only available languages at the start for the rules.
However, keep in mind that this was the email to North American Retailers so it’s possible there will be other language translations.
A Chat With The Developers of Warhammer 40k 10th Edition (March 27th, 2023)
This video was posted on Warhammer Community, but not on their YouTube channel as of this writing.
Here are some highlights from the chat as WHC didn’t provide many talking points…
- Rules not being all over the place, this seemed to be a primary focus, so you don’t have to search all over the codex for rules. You will have a detachment sheet at the front and then just refer to the datasheets for almost all the other rules.
- They tried to make stratagems more reactive (in the opponent’s phase) and fewer of them overall. Maybe a one-time use for something really thematic, but not as many gotcha moments with stratagems.
- There will be fewer decisions before the game (such as rules and which sub-faction), and you unlock a pre-set of rules depending on what you pick. It looks like there will still be sub-factions, just each will have a smaller impact.
- They simplified the turn structure and added a bunch of universal special rules put back into the game with a common language for the community.
- Took out rules that don’t necessarily need to be there, core rules very streamlined, and rewrote all datasheets.
- Combating new rule bloat, instead of writing rules on top of rules they will just make changes in the datasheet,
- Taking out “Gotcha mechanics” such as over-buffing a single unit, tons of stratagems to buff one thing, and fewer rules overall will reduce the gotcha feel.
- Lastly, they really tried to make the barrier to entry easier, especially in terms of rules.
GW Previews 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Rules Changes: (March 22nd, 2023)
On the first day of the new edition, the rules for every datasheet in 40k will be free to download, or available to buy as convenient and portable card decks. Even your faction and army rules now take up just a couple of pages.
Well, GW is keeping to the 3-year cycle for editions. So, this means new core rules, models, and from the sounds of it, free rules! We have been asking for free rules for a long time, but they won’t stay around for the entire edition; just the index will be free…
Codexes will return in time to replace the free rules, but when they do the complexity of the game won’t increase, thanks to a one-in-one-out ethos for army and sub-faction rules. Effectively, you will only ever need your unit datasheets, the two pages of rules that govern your chosen army (available in your codex, on cards, or digitally), plus the core rules and whatever mission you’re playing.
Oh well, at least we’ll have free rules for a little now.
They showed off a new datasheet, and they said everything will always fit on one card and the rules for each army will be significantly streamlined.
Army selection is equally straightforward: pick a faction, a warlord, and the units you like (just no more than three of any one type*), and stay within your points limit. That’s it!
You no longer have to fit your army into a force organisation chart, or compromise on the army you really want. It’s a simple and liberating system, and opens the door to all kinds of fun, thematic or unusual armies.
On the rules side of things, they say everything will be simplified, and less dense. So, there will be less redundancy, and everything will be put in smaller books.
Basically, everything will be one page now, what a refreshing concept!
From the sounds of it, there will also be fewer stratagems, sub-factions, and Warlord traits.
Sub-factions will take over the initial rules; basically, everything will be on one page. Every army will only have six army-specific stratagems, along with a list of common stratagems that every army can use (which is more than the current list) and there will also be fewer CP.
All the index rules will be free on day one, along with points. You can buy data cards, but the rules themselves will be free.
The Psychic Phase will be gone; morale will be moved into the command phase (and now you can’t just straight up lose models now), there will be a battle shock phase, and psychic powers are now put into datasheets and not separate phases.
Changed Datasheets
The datasheets look a lot different, but Toughness seems to be staying in the game despite the rumors otherwise!
Building armies is much simpler as well, very similar to the Arks of Omen detachments. As you can also see, they have an OC number, which means how good they are at grabbing objectives.
So, a Knight is going to have a much more significant OC number than the Termagants. They also mention general lethality is down, the cover is going to work differently, AP is going to be rarer, and there is going to be a bigger stratification in Toughness.
They even mentioned some vehicles have Toughness over 11.
Last but not least, they said Boarding Patrols will still be in the game, and Combat Patrols will actually be able to play against each other with preset lists (whatever comes in the box).
10th Edition Warhammer 40k Trailer Reveals New Space Marines & Tyranids Miniatures: (March 22nd, 2023)
First off, if you haven’t watched the video above, you should! It’s intense! We’ve also included some of our favorite stills below, but there are tons of potential teases for new models packed into the trailer, so see what you can notice!
What we saw included potential new models for a Terminator Librarian, a new Redemptor Dreadnought, a new Infiltrator-like troop, a new Tyranid Psyker, and potentially a rework of the classic Screamer Killer Carnifex with bioplasma attack.
Plus what looked to be even more new Tyranids as well! We are sure there might even be more new models hidden in plain sight after the community takes its time to dive into the frames!
Plus, we got a look at two new confirmed models right off the bat!
GW Previews New 10th Edition Terminators & Termagants Miniatures
Leading the assault are the much-improved new Space Marine Terminators. These juggernauts of death have been rescaled and resculpted to look as imposing as the lore demands. If Tyranids could feel fear… they would fear these guys.
As one of the most iconic, popular, and well-loved models, new Terminators will go a long way! This will significantly impact the look and feel of Warhammer 40k on tabletop since tons of people will be using them!
Here we can see the scale of the updated Terminator next to a Primaris marine and the older terminator. A bulkier, more intimidating model is a perfect fit for these durable threats.
New Tyranids Termagants Miniatures
What would a Tyranid army be without its swarm of lesser creatures though? Even the humble Termagant is getting quite the glow-up
If you want to get an idea of what else might be included in the new edition’s launch set, we suggest you go back and watch that awesome cinematic again…
Of course, just like the Terminator, players of Tyranids will love this new model update, as they are a vital part of the Tyranid lineup! Not to mention the Tyranids will clearly be getting tons of new models, just like the Necrons did on the last edition’s release!
Here again, we see a size comparison, with the new model keeping very close to the original design, except getting much more detailed and slightly larger!
Lots more previews and teasers are on the way as we head into summer and the official launch of the new edition!
GW Confirms 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Starter Set & Rumors: (March 12th, 2023)
Warhammer Community posted up this teaser image with the following caption.
What could this mean?
We’re not sure, but we’re excited…
So right off the bat, you can see what appears to be a Space Marine Terminator in the eye of some sort of Tyrnaids organism.
If you have been following the rumors, that we will recap below, these are supposedly the contents of the new Warhammer 40k starter box for 10th Edition.
Furthermore, you may notice the “scarlet” stripe is missing from the Warhammer 40k logo that appeared in for 9th Edition. That may be a clear indication that this teaser is for a new edition of the game.
The right shoulder pad of the Terminator also appears to be slightly different, but it could just be artistic liberty as well.
9th Edition Warhammer 40k Logo
10th Edition Warhammer 40k logo- no scarlet stripe?
The logo in the teaser video did, however, include the “scarlet” stripe in contrast to the logo in their teaser image.
RUMORS: NEW 10th Edition 40k Rules Changes Leaks Violate GW NDA (March, 2nd 2022)
These come from a 50-page chat posted by Miniwars that may have been translated into English, you can read the whole thing here.
We’ll break down some of the most significant changes, but at 50 pages there is a lot to cover. So, let’s start with model rumors.
El León will be released before the 10th edition. He will be in the index.
According to this, we will see the model before 10th edition drops. If the other rumors of June are true, that means we will see Lion El’Jonson before June! So, we might very well see him teased soon!
It is not surprising that both the Bloody Angels and the Tyranids are cited several times. the starter box is set on Baal and there is a campaign set in the wastes. It is Indomitus crusade, Blood Angels in this case vs updated Tyranids. I can tell you about the contents
This is one we’ve heard a lot of rumors going back and forth on. Some say it’s not Blood Angels, some say it is. Either way, they all seem to agree it’s Nids vs. Space Marines. So, we’ll wait on this. Now, let’s check out some more mechanics.
New Rolling Mechanics & Attack Sequence
Attack Sequence:
Number of Attacks -> roll to hit -> Damage -> Save -> Save Invulnerable
So, this means toughness may actually be gone, but we’ve heard other rumors about this, so not the most surprising. Maybe the most surprising part is getting to take both normal saves and invulnerable saves. Either way, this isn’t nearly all the changes to the attack sequence or how rolling is done.
To-hit rolls and saves, advantages and disadvantages like “modifiers” of rolls, “traits” of weapons… it all sounds strange.
This is just a totally different mechanic than we’re used to, but the chat goes really in-depth and hit rolls are going to be very different, but so are save rolls.
“Symbols” are mentioned as traits that affect weapons or attacks in general. There are Symbols that counter others, resolving before the Attack roll. This speeds up the rolls but implies knowing the Symbols of each weapon.
In this sense, weapons are very important, and each one varies according to the unit that carries them. Count around 4-5 Symbols plus 2 generic ones. [This reminds me of the Feats from Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. or even the Perks from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare]
Next up, it looks like there will be 5-7 symbols that match up against each other and make hitting easier or harder. We thought making symbols for Kill Team was odd, but now it makes sense as a way for them to test them out for 10th and maybe get people used to the idea.
New Damage & Terrain
And if the terrain is destructible… how will the cover rules work?
Supposedly, most of the terrain will be “destructible”, and the terrain is having a lot of changes.
One last thing to note here, at the end of the 50 pages it seems like this information may have been paid for in violation of a possible NDA with GW. Or at least it looks like it.
What does that look like to you?
RUMORS: New Space Marines Units Coming in the 10th Edition Box Set (March 1st, 2023)
These rumors come from Valrak, and he says they are from a trusted source.
So essentially, potentially new Veterans, a ranged dreadnought, and a flamer-type unit.
Let’s start with the Terminators. We’ve heard these new models will be chunkier, so they stand up to Primaris scale better, and this is the thrid rumor, or so we’ve heard they will be in the 10th edition box.
Lastly, we got a rumored statline for them from Bolter and Chainsword.
4W – S4 – T5 – 3A – 2+/4++ Sv.
We’ll have to see, but with this many leaks, there is a good chance these are for real.
Next, we have some sort of flamer weapon like what we saw for the Aggressors and the Black Templars. However, from the sounds of these rumors, you can get a complete unit of Primaris flamers, and they will probably look like the Templars model from above.
The Veterans may be more of a ranged unit. There wasn’t too much info on them, but supposedly they will be Primaris Veterans with their own kit who look awesome.
Apparently, the Brutalis will have a ranged counterpart all for shooting. From the rumors, Valrak’s hearing they will have lascannons and rockets. Supposedly it will be a callback to the older dreadnought with the stubby rocket launcher but built on the new Primaris/Redemptor body.
Last but not least, there will be no jump assault marines in the box… From the video, he says they are done and will come out at some point, just not yet. Who knows when they will drop, but it could still be a ways off.
RUMORS: 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Simplified Rules Changes: (February 28th, 2023)
Allegedly they are playtester, so they could be a good source. So how likely are these new 40k rules rumors, really?
Well, first, it makes sense to add some more generic Warlord traits and Relics, as most armies already have something similar in their book, and putting them in the rulebook would just make this easier.
Next, if GW greatly reduces stratagems, it would also make sense to add generic ones to the rulebook, so we’re not reading anything too crazy yet.
We don’t really see any way they can do 10th edition without an index based on some of the other rumors, so that shouldn’t be too surprising. However, the big change (which we’ve been hearing from other sources) is that Warlord Traits and Stratagems would be hugely scaled back.
This is also somewhat reflected in the World Eaters codex, but from the sounds of this, the new books will have even less.
Warhammer 40k Subfaction Rules Change?
The subfactions leaving might be the biggest part of these rumors. Basically, every army has a subfaction, and some have a ton (think Votann and AdMech). This would be a huge change to the game and codexes in general.
Supposedly in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k, you have to take a certain character to unlock the rules, but this might mean an increase of characters, or each army will now have fewer subfactions.
Turret rules being generic is a decent change, as it just makes the game easier. ObSec being gone is another massive change, as it removes the need for taking certain units.
However, this makes more sense with the new Arks of Omen detachment, as you can take whatever you want, so it seems GW really wants people just to take anything in their army.
With so many cuts to rules, it only makes sense the game would play faster but feels more generic. We hope they don’t take out all the flavor, but a faster game isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Lastly, if the playtest materials included only Space Marines and Tyranids, that would line up with the rest of the rumors we’ve heard about them being the new starting box.
What the Rumored Warhammer 40k 10th Edition Rules Changes Mean For the Game: February 9th, 2023
This laundry list of rumors was spotted on Reddit (titled, corroborated by Valark) that, if true, means 10th Edition, and all of the factions inside will play nothing as they did before…
We talked a lot about the release date here, so for now, we’re not going to go into that or the box set stuff.
- Core rules to be streamlined- this is nothing unexpected. As for the last few editions, GW tries to streamline everything initially.
- Psychic and Command Combined- This could be a huge difference, as it would really change when you score points or when you cast powers. If you can’t move first, then cast psychic powers, you’ll have to line things up the turn before. Also, this could make movement spells way better, as you could move first, then charge (if they allow the spells to do that).
- Getting Rid of Toughness- This will be a massive change to the game, and we’re not sure if this is going to go through or not. But either way, this would change the game so much.
- Detachments, CP, Stratagems, etc…- This is kind of evident in the World Eaters codex and the new way the Arks of Omen detachments work. We expect the newer books to be closer to the WE book and even more streamlined in terms of Stratagems and army composition.
- Smaller units and terrain- Terrain has had some problems in 9th edition so we wouldn’t mind a rework. The idea of smaller units also emphasizes the idea of higher points, so we might get a huge points increase for everything in the beginning.
- Core Rules- They will be split into narrative and competitive, but they already have been trying to do this with things like Arks of Omen. So, we’ll have to see how different they make the rule sets.
- Dark Admech- While this won’t change how current armies play, we want a codex, so we’re just praying this one is true! Plus, we’ll see another Xenos race, which might finally be the Exodites!
- A second wave of Votann- This would make their release very similar to the Sisters of Battle releases of 2019-2020-2021, so nothing too crazy, as we’ve seen GW do it before (laugh/cry).
Final Thoughts
We’ll have to wait until we see at least something confirmed, but from the sounds of it, games will be much faster and, hopefully, have a smaller barrier to entry for new players.
There is a chance they are trying to simplify things before the Cavill project comes to fruition, meaning the new influx of players might actually be able to get into the game and play without knowing a million rules.
It does sound like they are trying to make games faster, which is nice for casual players because you might be able to play a full game in two hours.
RUMORS: More on 40k 10th Edition Release Date & New Rules Changes: (February, 8th 2023)
These rumors come from Valrak, but more have been spotted on Reddit as well…
Let’s start with the rules reset. So, first up, it sounds like there will be indexes at the start of 10th for all the armies, just like there were at the 9th edition (we know some people hated them, just what we’re hearing).
So, if you have just bought the Imperial Guard codex or even the World Eaters codex this weekend, you might only have 4-6 months before things move to an index. Next up, it seems like we won’t have anything like the 7th to 8th reset.
It looks more like we’ll have the 8th-9th style, but we do need some resets. As the 9th edition has had some crazy rules bloat, an insane number of stratagems and terrain have some real annoyances.
So a reset of some of that would benefit the game’s state.
Then, when you look at the World Eaters book, it is much more streamlined (stratagems and secondaries) and less bloated than previous books. This will probably be the way we see books moving forward, as it will make it easier for new players to come in and just start playing with a single book instead of having to know what every army does.
Of course, it could all be due to the fact that GW is about to get a lot more new players when the Henry Cavill project launches way down the road, as it should bring a ton of eyes to the game, and GW wants an easier barrier to entry.
Overall, it looks like they want fewer books and gotcha rules.
Warhammer 40k 10th Edition Release Date Rumors
The rumored date release date for 10th Edition is June 24th. There have been rumors through the pipeline that GW has been training employees for the new edition and this date.
This also lines up with Warhammer Fest (which takes place at the beginning of May). Meaning they could do the huge reveal there and maybe even have test games for 10th edition. This also makes sense because 9th was supposed to hit pre-orders originally in the first week of June (2020) as well.
They sent out fliers about the date, but it eventually got pushed back because of lockdowns, so we could see the same thing for this actually release. Either way, it seems like GW prefers June for new editions.
Next up, if you look at the Arks of Omen books, they basically have a lineup going until June, with the last rumored book being called The Lion. It would make sense for the model to drop, and 10th edition to coincide with the end of the Arks of Omen series (much like Psychic Awakening).
Last but far from least is the laundry list of rumors spotted on Reddit (titled, corroborated by Valark) that, if true, means 10th Edition, and all of the factions inside will play nothing like they did before…
Votann may get multiple codex-waved for that sweet cash grab that we saw with the Sisters of Battle 2019-2020-2021 double codex releases, same as some of the newer AoS factions too.
Overall play and rules look to be completely revamped to take all that as just a rumor for now until confirmed by GW potentially at Warhammer Fest. Read More Here
RUMORS: 10th Edition Space Marines Supplements, Stratagems, & Release Date: (January, 25th 2023)
With that in mind, let’s check out the latest rumors. from B&C.
I have recently come to hear some interesting information pertaining to the year ahead.
- 10th edition is indeed coming this year, and apparently, some information may come to light at Adepticon.
- 10th edition will be an evolution of the core rules of 9th edition, not a complete rewrite. There are massive changes coming to the stratagem system. Streamlining and significant cutbacks – I heard mention of a dozen generic stratagems for use across all factions, and a single unique strat per army. (To me this sounds like the reaction system in 30k)
- The Codex chapter supplements are not coming in 9th edition (Fists, Iron Hands, Ultras, etc). They were planned for 9th initially but will now be too close to 10th.
- Anyways, this all sounded plausible to me. I’m not sure how GW would plan on an evolution of the rules, whilst scrapping all stratagems from the 9th edition books. The unit rules across all factions have been gutted, and their abilities converted to strats. I don’t even want to imagine the volume of FAQs and Errata.
I made a joke that the codex Space Marine chapters are now the most neglected factions. If the above is true, chapters like the Ultramarines (historically attacked for receiving more support than others) would have been ignored for an entire edition of 40k – this is quite humorous.
Well, first, it would make sense to see more at AdeptiCon if 10th is coming this year, as we assume we’re not going to get too much more info at LVO, and AdeptiCon is the next big event. Though if we were going to put money on it Warhammer Fest is probably where the big reveal will be.
Next, the rules not getting a huge rework is probably a nice thing. Overall, they play fairly decently, and if they just get a rework to be more simple and streamlined, that seems like a good idea by GW.
Then, it also makes sense that they are dropping the majority of Stratagems, as they have gotten quite bloated. If each army had one main one and then 14 generic ones, it would be much easier to know what each army is doing every turn.
Lastly, this is somewhat different from previous rumors, as this says supplements will not hit until 10th edition drops. This does make sense when you take into account how they want to do the new rules, and the number of changes they would have to make right away would be crazy.
So, maybe the rumors about the Space Marines just getting one new book, and then at the start of shortly into 10th, all the supplements will hit.
RUMORS: New 40k 10th Edition Starter Box, Terminators, & Tyranids: (January 19th, 2023)
These rumors come from this Valrak video, and he says this is all from a trusted source. A lot of this seems to line up with ther previous ones too!
We’ll start with Tyranids and the starter box. First, a lot of people are looking at June as the launch of 10th edition, and that means a giant new starter box!
In the box will be Space Marines and Tyranids. We’ve extensively discussed all the possible new Space Marines units (which you can check out here) but haven’t heard as much about the Tyranids. However, from the sounds of it, they will be getting as much love as the Necrons did when they were in Indomitus (the 9th edition starter set), meaning huge model reworks, new codex, and even new units!
They really need an overhaul as some of their units are quite old. So far, they have heard that Biovores, Lictors, possibly Genestealers, and Pyrovores. We’ve seen some rumor engines supporting this, but we’ll have to wait for something new to release to be sure.
More On the Return of Lion El ‘Jonson
Next up, the Lion is supposedly returning in 10th edition; we’ve also seen a ton of rumors about him. So, you can check out more rumors about Lion’el Johnson here, but according to the latest, he will also be getting a new book perhaps similar to the named Ark of Omens books.
New Space Marines Terminators
Lastly, new Terminators models may also be coming soon! From these rumors, they will not be Primaris; they will stay firstborn and just scaled up and retooled.
These new models will be chunkier, so they stand up to Primaris scale better, and also, they will also be in the 10th edition box! Lastly, we got a rumored statline for them from Bolter and Chainsword.
4W – S4 – T5 – 3A – 2+/4++ Sv.
We’ll have to see how it plays out, but these are some interesting rumors! Read More Here
UK Postage Stamps May Show Warhammer 10th Edition Release Date: (January 2nd 2023)
According to this image, Warhammer will be getting a stamp “Special Stamp” in June 2023! This would line up pretty well with most of the schedules we have seen for 10th Edition. However, it does not specifically say 40k.
As we said, we’ve heard a lot about 10th edition Warhammer 40k with info about codexes, new models, and plenty more! If you want to check out all the rumors for 10th edition, you can see them here.
GW still has to release Imperial Guard (the minis on their own), World Eaters, and new Space Marines. So, it would make sense we’re about six months out from the new edition. This stamp promotion is set for June 8th, but that might not be the exact day of the 10th edition release. Perhaps just super close to the actual release.
It is interesting to note that 9th Edition Warhammer 40k was supposed to release on June 6th, 2020, before COVID delayed the release into July of that year.
Being UK-based, Sprues and Brews, had a little more info on what we could expect from these UK Stamp Promotions:
You tend to get a range of different collectibles in each special release, from first-day covers (An envelope with special artwork adorned with the new stamps and franked with the release date) to framed sets of the entire collection and nice presentation booklets filled with info and artwork, and I suspect there will be lots of cool things we’ll all want to pick up as part of this!
RUMORS- New 40k 10th Edition Codexes Will Have Fewer Rules: December 19th, 2022
These are some very spicy rumors about how the 40k 10th edition codexes will have fewer rules than we do currently and be very streamlined!
The latest was spotted on Auspex Tactics, but goes a lot of the current 10th edition Warhammer 40k, rumors as well.
We’ve all heard the rumblings of too many rules, stratagems, and a lot of rules bloat in 9th edition.
This might make more sense when you start looking at how many books there are and how many rules are in each book. This also lines up with another rumor about smaller Space Marines chapters being just Armies of Renown sheets. If the main Space Marine codex is going to be super toned down, then it would also make sense for the chapters just to be armies of renown (at least at first, potentially due to a crowded release window for the new edition).
Obviously, this would have a huge impact on the game, but very similar to what they have done for the past two editions, cut down on the rules, and then they slowly grow over time.
We’ve also heard tons of rumors about how the World Eaters codex is somewhat small, right down to the number of units they have inside.
This would also make sense if Games Workshop is writing it to be more compatible with 10th edition. Basically, every book has had all kinds of sub-faction rules; these don’t seem to have that, tons of the points and upgrades are missingATM, and the Stratagems and Warlord Traits that have been leaked are smaller than something we would expect in 9th edition.
This codex could, indeed, be a good idea of what to expect with the newer codexes in the 10th Edition 40k
So, would this be good for the game? It really depends on the type of player you are. Friendly games will probably be more fun, as it’s not so difficult to know what your opponent can do, and you can just throw the minis down and play!
However, if you’re more competitive, this could put a much bigger onus on just list-building and take away some tactical advantages. Either way, it will be interesting to see if this is true!
RUMORS- 10th Edition 40k Rules Reset & Epic Returns: December 12th, 2022
The latest Chapter Master Valrak rumors on YouTube, and B&C (edited for grammar) seem to indicate not only the return of 10th Edition 40k that pretty much everyone suspects but also provide a few scant details.
10th is apparently coming next year, and they will be resetting it, everything going back to indexes as we got with 8th Edition. Take it with all the salt you can consume.
Also, EPIC is coming back for the Horus Heresy, apparently.
Indexes were what Games Workshop used back when they reset the 40k rules set to 8th Edition back in 2017, with the promise of fewer books needed and only eight pages of core rules.
Each index featured rules for either the Imperium, Xenos, or Chaos factions as a quickstart way to get players up and running with the new 8th Edition 40k rules mechanics before each codex came out.
While the promise of fewer rules needed to play was a great idea then, it didn’t even stand up to the first major event of the 8th edition, with GW having to hot-fix scoring flyers after the 2017 ATCs spammed so many.
Unfortunately, the rules bloat mushroomed from there, unfortunately to what we have today with tons of supplement microtransactions and a Warhammer 40k army builder App that has never quite lived up to everyone’s expectations.
On the Epic 40k side of things, it seems like releases have slowed for both Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis, so perhaps re-releasing Epic (small-scale games of 40k) would be a great way for Games Workshop to recycle these models in the new 1/4 scale to be used together with perhaps some unseen similarly scaled 40k models.
Here’s a great look at the differences in scale from the old 1990s epic scale, the new AI, and the current 40k sizes. The plastic AI Thunderhawk is a perfect 4″ long, exactly 1/4 the size of the Forge World one! The same goes for the Titans in Adeptus Titianicus compared to Warhammer 40k.
RUMORS: Epic 40k Returning
These rumors come from Valrak, and he said he’s pretty certain about these ones! He’s been pretty spot-on lately, so just something to think about.
There are three main points for the return of Epic 40k rumors.
- First, it looks like the game is set to make a triumphant return sometime after 10th edition 40k drops. He wouldn’t give an exact timeline, but from the sounds of it, 2024 looks like the most obvious date. Click here to see the other rumors on Epic we have been hearing so far.
- Next up, there is a big chance this will actually be set in Horus Heresy (like Adeptus Titanicus). This is a shame for many 40k players as it cuts out a ton of Xenos factions, but with it being so far out, this could not be the case as well. Some people are also out there saying it is 40k, but we’ll have to wait and see about that.
- Lastly, it looks like AI will either be moved to something else or somehow incorporated.
Warhammer 40k Rumors: 10th Edition Reactions & Fate of Space Marines
We had already heard some of these rumors about Warhammer 40k 10th Edition; however, ther are some even spicier details in these new ones.
According to Faeit, things may change greatly for everyone’s favorite superhumans.
Warhammer 40k gets a hard reset at Summer next Year.
10th Edition will start with Index-like Codex Books.
GW will streamline the ruleset and make it even easier. Unit Profiles will get simplified and the Armies will focused more on Themed Armies. Stratagems will play a bigger role in List build.
There will be no alternated unit activation but reaction from the HH ruleset comes over to 40k.
Space Marines will get split. “First Born” Marines will be not removed from 40k; thy remain as a sub faction for all Chapters. They will resupplied with HH Sets. We can await Marines in Mk5 and Mk7 Power Armour also for the M41. There will be seperate Codices for Primaris and Old Marines in the future.
So the stage may be set for TWO new versions of Warhammer 40k, and regardless of which of these systems you want more, these are spicy rumors for sure.
8th Edition 40k Codex Release Order:
Looking back to the start of 8th Edition in 2017, perhaps we can see some pattern in how the 9th Edition codex release lineup will go into 2023:
TL;DR The first Xenos codexes released for 8th Edition were:
- Craftworlds October 2017
- Tyranids November 2017
And the first non-Marine Imperial books were:
- Adeptus Mechanicus September 2017
- Astra Militarum October 2017
Unfortunately for both Craftworlds and Tyranids, they weren’t very early this time around, but at least they have finally grabbed books (or almost for the Nids).
- Space Marines July 2017
- Chaos Space Marines August 2017
- Grey Knights August 2017
- Adeptus Mechanicus September 2017
- Death Guard September 2017
- Astra Militarum October 2017
This is the first six, so it’s very similar to what we currently have for the 9th edition. Roughly looking at it here, there are 4 Imperium codexes and 2 Chaos vs 9th edition’s 4 Imperium, 1 Chaos, and 1 Xenos. Relatively similar patterns trading in one Chaos release for a Xenos release.
It looks like the Astra Militarium book was replaced by the Sisters of Battle book.
- Craftworlds October 2017
- Tyranids November 2017
- Blood Angels December 2017
- Dark Angels December 2017
- Adeptus Custodes January 2018
- Chaos Daemons January 2018
- Thousand Sons February 2018
- Tau Empire March 2018
- Necrons March 2018
- Drukhari April 2018
Looking at the list after ten more releases raising the count to 16 total, the ratio of Imperium-to-Chaos-to-Xenos changes a bit. The totals after 16 releases are 7 Imperium, 4 Chaos, and 5 Xenos books, respectively. Drukhari jumped the line this time, but others got pushed way deeper.
- Harlequins May 2018
- Deathwatch May 2018
- Imperial Knights June 2018
- Space Wolves August 2018
- Orks November 2018
- Genestealer Cults February 2019
Going up to 22 codexes, the totals move up to 10 Imperium, 4 Chaos, and 8 Xenos, skewing the balance even moreover to Imperium and Xenos. Granted, Xenos has entirely different races, while Imperium and Chaos generally are different flavors of the same core faction with a few exceptions like Knights and/or Daemons.
After about two years of the 8th edition, they circled back to what we think we can safely say are their big sellers; Space Marines.
- Chaos Space Marines (2nd Edition) March 2019
- Chaos Knights July 2019
- Space Marines (2nd Edition) August 2019
- Ultramarines (Space Marines) August 2019
- White Scars (Space Marines) August 2019
- Iron Hands (Space Marines) September 2019
- Ravenguard (Space Marines) September 2019
- Imperial Fists (Space Marines) October 2019
- Salamanders (Space Marines) October 2019
- Adepta Sororitas November 2019
Finally, tallying 32 total Codex/supplement releases, we have the full 8th edition lineup in view. The final totals are 17 Imperium, 5 Chaos, and 8 Xenos, making a smooth 30 books for the full lineup. However, six of the last Imperium additions were just supplements for Space Marines.
Hard to believe that was literally three years ago (more or less), right? Heck, the 9th Edition Space Marines codex was announced that less than a year had passed since the second 8th Edition one was released.
8th Edition Narrative Expansions
- Imperium Nihilus: Vigilus Defiant (Ultramarines) December 2018
- Imperium Nihilus: Vigilus Ablaze (Black Legion) April 2019
- Psychic Awakening: Phoenix Rising (Craftworlds, Drukhari & Index: Ynnari) October 2019
- Psychic Awakening: Faith & Fury (Chaos Space Marines & Space Marines) November 2019
- Psychic Awakening: Blood of Baal (Blood Angels & Tyranids) December 2019
- Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned (Dark Angels, Grey Knights & Thousand Sons) January 2020
- Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good (Tau, Astra Militarum & Genestealer Cults) February 2020
- Psychic Awakening: Saga of the Beast (Space Wolves & Orks) March 2020
- Psychic Awakening: Engine War (Adeptus Mechanicus, Imperial Knights, Chaos Knights & Chaos Daemons) June 2020
- Psychic Awakening: War of the Spider (Adeptus Custodes, Sisters of Silence, Assassins, Death Guard & Agents of Bile) June 2020
- Psychic Awakening: Pariah (Adepta Sororitas, Necrons & Index: Inquisition) July 2020
The narrative expansions took place over the course of nearly two years and offered minor updates and changes to 29 factions and sub-factions, Some of which, like Agents of Bile, were brand new! These books also accelerated the 40k story forward as it was relatively still during the course of the edition up until this point, sans the Vigilus storyline.
Now, they are releasing the Nachmund, Charadon, and Octarius books alongside the releases. So this is a new way to go about it; instead of waiting until most of the books are out, they are just giving small rules updates along with the new books.
That has stopped, as it didnt seems to go over so well with hobbyists. We have even made the case that Games Workshop realized they had messed up with this path to market. From what we have seen, they may be looking to pivot another set of supplements not based on matched play at all…
9th Edition Warhammer 40k Release Schedule so Far
Now let’s see how the start of 9th edition Warhammer 40k compares with the start of 8th Edition:
This is the order of releases for 9th Edition Warhammer 40k starting after Indomitus dropped in July of 2020:
- Necrons October 2020
- Space Marines October 2020
- Deathwatch November 2020
- Space Wolves November 2020
- Blood Angels December 2020
- Dark Angels January 2021
- Death Guard January 2021
- Drukhari March 2021
- Adeptus Mechanicus May 2021
- Adeptus Sororitas June 2021
- Grey Knights August 2021
- Thousand Sons August 2021
- Orks September 2021
- Black Templars November 2021
- Adeptus Custodes January 2022
- Genestealer Cult January 2022
- Tau February 2022
- Aeldari March 2022
- Tyranids April 2022
- Chaos Knights May 2022 (Army box)
- Imperial Knights May 2022
- Chaos Daemons August 2022
- Leagues of Votann September 2022 (Army box)
- Imperial Guard November 2022 (Army Box)
From mid-2022, it looks like the Xenos factions are now pretty much all released, considering the Aeldari book took up basically three books from the previous year.
- Charadon: Book of Rust January 2021
- Charadon: Book of Fire July 2021
- War Zone Octarius Book 1: Rising Tide October 2021
- War Zone Octarius Book 2: Critical Mass November 2021
These supplements have had some new Armies of Renown and specific Subfaction rules, but not a crazy amount of rules for any one army. They generally were released soon after the main codex with more rules, with no further releases after Octarius Book 2.
Does This Mean a Rules Rotation is Coming in 2023
GW has been kept to a 3-year cycle for new editions as of late. Plus, with how many books are already out, there is a chance near the middle of 2023, we could easily see 10th Edition Warhammer 40k drop.
They still have plenty of time left to stay on track, and if they do, we’ll have to see how they revamp it along with the quarterly balance updates.
Overall, Warhammer 40k seems to be in a great place balance-wise. However, there is still a lot of time to fill between December 2022, when this article was written, and the summer of 2023.
Currently, only the World Eaters codex and the non-matched play-centric Arks of Omen are confirmed next which still leaves a lot up in the air for what else we will see released soon.
Plus, we have also heard rumors that a Space Marines 2.0 book may be coming soon and that the 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Starter box set may be Tyranids and Space Marines…
So look for a similar path to market for 10th Edition codex books as the 8th, and 9th Edition releases because Games Workshop now has proven sales data to forecast from.
Check out the latest Warhammer 40k rumors for the rest of the 9th and even 10th Edition, new releases, and more!
Here’s the most up-to-date list of new Games Workshop bits from preview models that we should watch out for. Click on the gallery above to see dozens of Rumor Engines with new models still left to be revealed!
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What codex book releases do you think will be coming next before 10th Edition Warhammer 40k?
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